dyton mupawaenda
Collin Matiza-Sports Editor
IT’S “three more sleeps’’ before Zimbabwe’s motorbike rider Ashley Thixton realises his dream of lasting the distance at the 2024 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.
After yesterday’s Stage 8 in which he came home in 35th place (+45:41), the 30-year-old biker just has to clear the last four hurdles (today, tomorrow, Thursday and on the last day of competition on Friday) to write his own piece of history as he will become the second Zimbabwean biker after Graeme Sharp (2020) to complete the whole Dakar Rally course in the Saudi dunes. Yesterday’s Stage 8 comprised of 220km liaison and 458km special stage from Al Duwadimi to Ha’il and Thixton came out with another clean bill of health.
Thixton actually wants to join the Zimbabwean motorsport immortals by achieving this phenomenal feat of going full length when the curtain finally comes down on the 2024 Dakar Rally on Friday.
He just wants to be a Zimbabwean motorsport legend. In fact, going into yesterday’s Stage 8 of the 2024 Dakar Rally, Thixton, who is making his de-but appearance at the world’s biggest and toughest motor rallying event in Saudi Arabia, had managed to clear the first seven stages with some smart rides which kept him in the top 40 of the bikes section of the Rally.
On Sunday, he survived a scare after an early fall during the Stage 7, but he dusted himself up and rode his Husqvarna bike expertly to glide home safely as he kept his dream of being among the finishers on Friday very much alive.
He should have been gutted to exit the rally early. Sunday’s Stage 7 was one of the Rally’s longest and after falling in the early stages of this stage, Thixton gathered his wits and managed to climb back into the top 30s after having dropped to around 78th.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s Stage 8 was a very difficult, tough and slow stage — according to preliminary calculations, the average speed on it was less than 80 km/h. In such conditions, the Argentinean Kevin Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) rode the best, winning the second special stage at this year’s Dakar.
Last year’s race winner remains one of the main heroes of the race — only a month and a half ago he suffered a serious leg injury, and is now fighting for a position in the Top 5 and ahead of his teammate Toby Price.
The battle for victory is becoming increasingly difficult — American Ricky Brabec (Honda) keeps the lead and even has a slight lead over Botswana’s Ross Branch (Hero), but his advantage four days before the finish is only 42 seconds. This pair of leaders is under increasing pressure from Chile’s José Ignacio Cornejo (Honda), whose gap is now less than 4.5 minutes. An interesting fact is that both Benavides brothers, the elder Kevin (KTM) and the younger Luciano (Husqvarna), finished in the Top 3 together for the second time in a row on a special stage.
Stage 8 (moto)
1. Benavides K. (KTM)
2. Benavides L. (Husqvarna) +0:31
3. Van Beveren (Honda) +1:27
4. Cornejo (Honda) +1:41
5. Price (KTM) +2:18
Overall (moto)
1. Brabec (Honda)
2. Branch (Hero) +0:42
3. Cornejo (Honda) +4:21
4. Van Beveren (Honda) +11:58
5. Benavides K. (KTM) +20:31
Online Reporter